Friday, December 7, 2018

...A free house may sound like a scam. But Japan faces an unusual property problem: it has more homes than people to live in them.

In 2013, there were 61 million houses and 52 million households, according to the Japan Policy Forum. And the situation is poised to get worse.

Japan's population is expected to decline from 127 million to about 88 million by 2065, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security, meaning even fewer people will need houses. As young people leave rural areas for city jobs, Japan's countryside has become haunted by deserted "ghost" houses, known as "akiya."

It's predicted that by 2040, nearly 900 towns and villages across Japan will no longer exist -- and Okutama is one of them. In that context, giving away property is a bid for survival.

Japan has an extremely convenient and efficient rail network, but in practice going out for the day involves not just riding, but plenty of walking. A 10-minute walk from your home to the nearest station is considered average, and after you get off the train, you’ve still got to hoof it to your final destination.

This makes rainy days a pain in the butt. Using public transportation means having carry a bag with whatever you need for the day, and if you’re also trying to use a map app on your smartphone to navigate Japan’s confusingly unnamed street system, you might end up without a free hand to hold an umbrella and keep the rain off yourself.

The solution, according to online retailer Dospara, is to get an umbrella you don’t need to hold. This week, the company began offering what it calls the Teburagasa, which translates to Hands-Free Umbrella.

...Of course, you can deflect any jeers by reminding people that while both condoms and the Hands-Free Umbrella are designed to block liquids, the thing you have strapped to your skull is to keep it from getting in, not spurting out. :))

... However, this has resulted in a population drain on other parts of Japan, who see their best and brightest moving out of the region, never to return. In recent years, the Japanese government has been looking into ways to revitalize the country's fading small-to-mid-sized regional communities, and now it's proposing what might be its most bluntly direct tactic yet: bribing (hối lộ, chi tiền) people to move out of Tokyo.

Last week, the federal government said that it's considering establishing a system to provide financial grants (trợ cấp tài chính) to people currently living in Tokyo's 23 central wards (the most populated parts of the city) who move away to start new jobs or set up new companies. They're not talking pocket change, either, as the early proposal would give you up to three million yen to get out of town.

Called ふるさと納税 (Furusato Nouzei or, roughly, the Hometown Tax System), it works something like this:

A substantial portion of Japan's income-based taxes are residence taxes, which are paid to the city and prefecture (think state) that one resides in, based on one's income in the previous year. The rate is a flat 10% of taxed income; due to quirks of calculating this which almost certainly aren't relevant to you, you can estimate this as 8% of what white collar employees think their salary is.

Furusato Nouzei allows you to donate up to 40% of next year's residence tax to one or many cities/prefectures of your choice, in return for a 1:1 credit on your tax next year. This is entirely opt-in. Anyone can participate, regardless of where they live.

In principle, the idea is to donate to one's hometown. Importantly, one actually has unfettered discretion as to which city/prefecture one donates to.

... In 2008, about 33,000 people participated in the Furusato Nouzei system, principally out of genuine charitable concern. In 2016, it was about 2.2 million. They donated on the order of $2.5 billion. The primary accelerant was the bidding war. A contributor was the popularization of Internet sites to broker the donations, which substantially reduce the friction required to participate.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Japanese hotels and banks are, by global standards, heavily overstaffed despite the country's demographic crunch. Most supermarkets have not embraced (đón nhận) the automated (tự động) checkouts (tính tiền ra khỏi siêu thị) common elsewhere, nor airlines self-service check-ins (tự làm thủ tục máy bay). The offices of Japan's small and medium-sized enterprises are among the most inefficient (không hiệu quả) in the developed world, chides McKinsey, a management consultancy.

Japan has an elaborate (phức tạp, tinh vi) service culture, which machines struggle to replicate (bắt chước). Japanese customers, especially the elderly, strongly prefer people to machines, says Yoko Takeda of Mitsubishi Research Institute, a think-tank. Employment practices make it difficult to replace workers. And while gimmicky (phô trương, cường điệu) robots abound, Japan struggles to develop the software and artificial intelligence needed to enable them to perform useful tasks, says a report by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the cockpit (buồng lái) of Japan's post-war miracle. So while the reception at the robot hotel is automated, seven human employees lurk (ẩn nấp, núp, trốn) out of sight to watch over customers and avoid glitches (sự cố nhỏ kỹ thuật). Robots still cannot make beds, cook breakfast or deal with a drunken guest who will not pay his bill.

Drunk first officer Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, was arrested at the airport after failing a breath test just 50 minutes before Japan Airlines (JAL) flight JL44 to Tokyo was due to take off with him in the cockpit (buồng lái; chỗ chọi gà; bãi chiến trường).

He pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol limit at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. Tests revealed he had 189mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system – nearly 10 times the legal limit of 20mg for on-duty pilots. The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80mg.

...The news comes the same day the Home Office has launched a “call for evidence” to determine whether airports should be subject to the same licensing laws as the high street. The three-month procedure invites members of the public to share their views about airports being able to sell alcohol before 10am, unlike elsewhere in the country.

...The Exhibition Hall, which originally opened in 2002, is a fascinating (mê hoặc, quyến rũ, thôi miên) glimpse (cái nhìn thoáng qua) into the Japanese psyche of introspection (tự xem xét nội tâm, nội quan). If you've ever worked in a Japanese company, you're probably familiar with the term hanseikai (反省会), which loosely translates as "introspection meeting." During the meeting, those involved in an event will discuss what went wrong, and how it can be improved upon. In reality it's perhaps the boss (sếp, ông chủ) yelling at his or her subordinates (cấp dưới), pointing out (chỉ ra, vạch ra) their mistakes (sai lầm, lỗi lầm). But in theory (về lý thuyết), the idea is to expose errors, rather than hide them, as a means of reflection and learning (học hỏi, rút kinh nghiệm). Failure is more likely to trigger reflection than success. And reflection, not experience, is the key to learning. The Exhibition Hall of Historical Accidents is, in essence, a permanent large-scale hanseikai.

Japan relies heavily on the sea for food and insists it has the right to sustainably hunt everything in it. Britain and the rest of the anti-whaling camp reject that on conservationist and humane grounds.

...Japan could follow Iceland and Norway, which opted out of the global moratorium and continue to hunt whales for profit. But walking away from the IWC would have consequences. It would, for one, further alienate diplomatic allies, including Australia, which took Japan to the ICJ. It would also force Japan to create new regional whaling structures. That would force it to end what at the moment is mainly harmless if noisy annual grandstanding at the IWC and explain to taxpayers why it continues to push for the revival of a dying industry. Outside of a handful of coastal towns, whale meat in Japan is not popular. Yet the whaling programme has cost at least $400m in subsidies since 1988, according to one study. Security for protecting the whaling fleet from militant conservationists has pushed up the price tag for each Antarctic expedition. Rather than debate whether this is good value for money, the Japanese media has settled into a more familiar but entertaining narrative of defending whaling against Western “culinary imperialism”. That seems unlikely to end.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Stressed out, overworked, or just over it: Workers in Japan who want to leave their jobs — but don’t want to face the stress of quitting in person — are paying a company called Exit to tell their bosses that they won’t be back.

People hoping to never set foot in their workplace again pay Exit $450 to help them quit their full-time jobs; those who have had it with part-time work can pay around $360. And as Alex Martin reports for Japan Times, “Repeat clients get a [$90] discount.”

Saturday, August 25, 2018

A few years ago, a new trend for people with too much money to spent burst onto the market: vinotherapy (which is apparently not a term wine drinkers use in place of “alcoholism”).

Vinotherapy for first came to my attention when Amare Stoudemire spent some time with ESPN to give them a peek into what he does on his off-days— which apparently involves taking a dip into a giant vat filled with red wine sourced from the Rioja region of Spain. Stoudemire extolled the benefits of one of his preferred methods of rehabilitation (phục hồi sức khỏe) and claimed the treatment serves multiple purposes, including increased circulation and releasing toxins (độc tố) from your body (cơ thể).

...making a pilgrimage to Misugi Resort in the Kansai region of the country, a destination that specializes in offering guests tranquil (yên bình, thanh bình) and restorative (làm phục hồi sức khỏe, tẩm bổ) experiences in a wide variety of forms. One of those forms just so happens to be a jacuzzi filled with craft beer (bia được làm từ nhà máy bia nhỏ, chỉ được phân phối trong vùng; bia thủ công).

Thursday, August 9, 2018

...The investigation found that in this year’s entrance exams the school reduced all applicants’ first-stage test scores by 20% and then added at least 20 points for male applicants, except those who had previously failed the test at least four times. It said similar manipulations had occurred for years because the school wanted fewer female doctors, since it anticipated they would shorten or halt their careers after having children.

It is not clear how many women have been affected, but the practice started in 2006, according to Japanese media, potentially affecting a large number of candidates.

The education ministry official’s son, who had failed the exam three times, was given a total of 20 additional points, which eventually elevated him to just above the cutoff line.

The report said the manipulation was “profound sexism”, according to lawyer Kenji Nakai.

Friday, July 27, 2018

...Japan’s Wakino Ad Company thinks there’s an even better place to put an ad, and it’s right there in the company’s name.

“Waki” is the Japanese word for “armpit,” and sure enough, Wakino Ad Company is all about getting your product or service promoted via young ladies’ armpits.

The company has just started operations, and so armpit advertising remains on the untested frontier of Japanese business strategy, with an yet unknown, and thus possibly limitless, potential. To help us visualize the possibilities, Wakino Ad Company has released concept stills showing how this strategy could be applied to detective agencies…

It was a case of squeaky bum time when fans finally tore themselves away from the TV last week after a nail-biting (cắn móng tay; gay cấn, căng thẳng) first 45 minutes, with water use jumping 24 percent in Tokyo during the break, the city’s waterworks bureau said Friday.

...Flushed with joy after watching Yuya Osako bag (bỏ túi) a second-half winner for Japan against 10-man Colombia in Russia on Tuesday, jubilant fans made another dash for the loo (nhà vệ sinh) at the final whistle (tiếng còi kết thúc trận đấu), causing an additional 50 percent spike in water use.

But the official revealed that the Tokyo waterworks bureau anticipated (dự đoán trước) the stampede (chạy tán loạn) and adjusted the city’s supply and pressure accordingly to avoid catastrophe (thảm họa).

A Japanese woman mourned (than khóc, thương tiếc) the death of her husband, whom she believed was found dead in a river (chết đuối ở sông), only to be stunned nearly a year later when her spouse (chồng) returned very much alive at her doorstep (thềm cửa).

Tokyo police said a body of a man — initially believed to be in his 40s — was discovered in the Edo River in the city’s Katsushika Ward in June 2017, three days after the unidentified (không xác định danh tính) woman reported her husband missing. The wife, along with two relatives (người thân), went to police and “positively” identified the man as a family member.

The family cremated (hỏa táng) the body.

The “dead” man, however, suddenly showed up at the family’s home in May.

It’s unclear where the Japanese woman’s husband has been for the last 11 months...

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Finding time for romance in Japan can sometimes be a difficult task. Many secondary schools prohibit their students from dating, under the logic that doing so keeps them focused on their studies. In college, most social interactions are centered around group activities with members of the same extracurricular clubs or research teams. And once you hit adulthood, there’s a chance that your company will pretty much dominate your day-to-day schedule, what with all the overtime and after-work drinking sessions.

So it’s not so surprising that many Japanese women end up finding the emotional/physical companionship they crave in the arms of a coworker. Still, the results of a recent survey show the practice to be surprisingly common among its participants.

Aikatsu, an internet portal catering to single women in their 20s and 30s, recently polled its female users, asking how many of them have, in its delicately chosen words, “had a physical relationship with someone from your workplace.” Out of the 1,162 responses collected, more than three in four women said they had slept with someone from the office.

Monday, April 16, 2018

In the latest scheme of the booming (bùng nổ, phồn thịnh) private space industry (công nghiệp không gian), a Japanese company proposes to light up the night with made-to-order shooting stars (sao băng)…

The fireworks (pháo hoa) will come courtesy of a satellite (vệ tinh) some 220 miles high, owned by the world’s first “aerospace entertainment” firm, Astro Live Experiences, or ALE.

The brainchild of University of Tokyo astronomer Lena Okajima, the spacecraft (tàu vũ trụ) will circle the globe and kick out 15 to 20 small metallic pebbles (đá cuội, thạch anh) on command.